At 6’5” with an athletic background that includes being a former defensive end for Central Missouri State University, a case could be made that Steven “Goose” Ragusa was built to be a fireman. Aside from his natural God-given frame, like any fireman, he also puts the needs of others first. However, in some ways, it’s this willingness to put the needs of others first that sometimes forces him to neglect himself.

Ragusa explains that amidst a very busy schedule his “diet was absolutely poor,” something that he says began when playing university football. At the time, he was “tall and skinny” so he did “anything and everything” to change that, even following the advice of a strength coach who told him to “start eating butter.” However, after his university days were behind him, Ragusa began noticing that it wasn’t as easy burning off all the calories he was consuming. Ragusa says “I would maybe try to workout for a couple of weeks and then it would stop.”

With his blood pressure “a little high” his doctor recommended some medication. Soon thereafter, his wife, who had been working with the Hitch Fit personal trainers, entered a fitness competition and Ragusa explains that he “was totally amazed” by her transformation adding that, “I knew at that point that that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to change my lifestyle, my body, and everything.”

Ragusa became focused and enlisted the help of the same personal trainer. At first he thought there was “no way I can get through this,” but notes that “over time it just became easier.” He says that, “the nutrition was a major change” because while he was eating more frequently, he found it hard to “get away from the sweets, the salts, [and] the seasonings” that he traded in for “chicken, fish, brown rice, vegetables, oatmeal, no fruits, all water, [and] no alcohol.” He explains that he’d do “six miles of cardio in the morning” and would do “another 80 minutes” of cardio at night.

His weekly gym schedule consisted of “two days of upper body, two days of lower body and then I might get another upper or lower body in through the week.” He says that cardio made up about 50% of his fat loss efforts while, “diet would be about 25%” and attributes “another 25%” to strength conditioning. And, the results speak for themselves.In just 16 weeks, Ragusa shed an astounding 74 pounds and says his next goal is to become a fitness competitor. He adds he has “so much more energy” and notes that his newfound physique recently gave him another unexpected, touching gift when his young daughter told him “Daddy, look, I can finally get my arms all the way around you.”